February 09, 2006 The decision to close down the State Monopoly public TEKEL tobacco products plant has been repealed by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after nationwide actions and support poured for the workers and the largest trade union confederation Türk İş intervened. The factory started its production with the new decision. The news […]
February 09, 2006
The decision to close down the State Monopoly public TEKEL tobacco products plant has been repealed by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after nationwide actions and support poured for the workers and the largest trade union confederation Türk İş intervened. The factory started its production with the new decision.
The news was received with joy and celebrations by the workers who resisted for 41 days against the decision to close down their factory and push them to unemployment. The workers gathered in front of the plant and celebrated their victory but are waiting for the raw materials to arrive at the factory to start producing again.
The regional representative of the union Tek-Gıda İş, Gürsel Diliçıkık said, “We have been resisting by not leaving the factory premises for the last 41 days. The government finally heard us. We were right in our actions, and we resisted for the future of our kids. Finally they saw their mistake and repealed the original decision. To accept your mistake is a virtue. Everybody understood how right we were. We wanted the plant to produce and we won. I want to thank everybody, but especially the people of Adana for supporting us.
After the arrival of raw materials, the factory will resume production with an opening that will be attended by some ruling party JDP’s representatives and many union officials.
After initial celebrations, the workers returned to the factory to start cleaning and maintenance of the machinery.
M.B.
